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Candidate for New York State Assembly Stacey Pheffer Amato is asking the National Park Service for security cameras in the Gateway National Recreation Area. Pheffer Amato's request comes just a week after new footage emerged of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano's final moments before her August 2nd murder in the Spring Creek section of the park.

"Security cameras are an essential law enforcement tool that help to deter illegal activity and aid local law enforcement in criminal investigations. It is unthinkable that in this day and age, in an urban park like Gateway, we don't have cameras and other infrastructure to keep an eye on the area and aid visitors in distress," Stacey Pheffer Amato said. "I urge the National Park Service to recognize the unique needs of our urban parkland and install the infrastructure that will keep our families safe."

In a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Pheffer Amato called on the federal agency to install permanent security cameras and blue light emergency call boxes throughout Gateway which stretches over some 26,000 acres including sections in New York City and New Jersey. Pheffer Amato characterized current safety infrastructure within the Jamaica Bay Unit of the park as "inadequate," given its urban location and record crowds.

"It's time the National Park Service recognizes that Gateway is an urban park, with very different security needs than the Grand Canyon or Yosemite. Gateway is right in the middle of the largest city in the country, and having cameras and blue boxes here is simply a no-brainer," concluded Pheffer Amato.